How rural India’s artisans find global buyers through Lal10

50-year old Arti Rana from Lakhimpur which is 250 km away from Lucknow, used to earn Rs 12 a day by making jute raw products and selling them in the capital city. The minimum wage hardly fulfilled her family needs especially her being the only earning member.

But soon, things changed. Rana was attending UP Government’s program when she met Lal10’s young founders who were invited to find marketing scope for the state’s indigenous products. The meeting in no time became a win-win situation for both.

Founders of Lal10Today, Rana earns upto Rs 3000 a month and leads a group of 24 women artisans, thanks to Lal10. She is not alone. Along with her, 8,000 artisans from across India who joined their platform has seen a 60% increase in their monthly income.

Unlike other e-commerce marketplaces, which focus on instant delivery and faster procurements, Lal10 reaches out to artisans from hinterlands to showcase their handcrafted products online and sell.

Started by two former Flipkart employees Maneet Gohil and Sanchit Govil in 2015, Lal10 aimed to create a network of artisans and expand the reach of handicrafts from across India. Later, Albin Jose, an old friend of Gohil also joined the team. Explaining why the business was named Lal10 (Laltan) , the founders smile to say that it’s the colloquial word for lantern which easily connects with the rural populace.

“We connect with state governments to reach out to these artisans from different states and then meet them to understand their crafts and how we can take these products to the larger markets,” explains Govil. Starting from Jammu Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, the founders reached Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya to find these elusive handicrafts.

“The first month of operations started with just Rs 7,000 of booked revenue and since then we have not looked back and have grown at a rate of 22% month-on-month,” recalls Govil.

The 12-member bootstrapped company has tied up with companies like CCD, online jewellery marketplace Bluestone, offline retailers, hotel chains, boutiques and boasts of over 150 and sell products across 18 countries.

“The international market for handicrafts in pegged around $400B, out of which India has a share of around $8B. And, India has 40% of the global artisan population. The disparity lies in the fact that 40% of global population of artisans contribute to roughly 2% of the global market which makes us believe that small innovations in this sector will make a deep impact and bring in a rapid wave of organization of this sector,” adds Jose.